Jun 9, 2006 6:02 AM, PROMO Xtra, By Andrew Scott

The search engine war is heating up with Fox Interactive Media set to launch its own search engine joining powerhouses Google, Yahoo and MSN.

"We're meeting with at least 10 companies a week," said Ross Levinsohn, president of News Corp.'s Fox on the search for a company to handle the search engine. Fox will announce a deal in about two months, Levinsohn said yesterday in an interview following his keynote speech at the Digital Marketing Conference in New York City.

Fox owns a plethora of online media assets including the popular Myspace.com Web site known for its social networking capabilities and its broad appeal to youth. Eight percent of MySpace traffic comes from Google, Levinsohn said.

The media company has used the MySpace Web site to attract marketers interested in reaching key demographic groups.

"We can do a search that reveals that there are 10,000 users with interest in Ford Mustangs," Levinsohn said. "It's a digital gold mine which we'll spend the next six months taking to our other online media assets."

Fox's other online media assets include IGN.com, Askmen.com and RottenTomatoes.com.

Recently, 20th Century Fox used MySpace to promote the release of the movie X-Men: The Last Stand. Users could download X-Men wallpapers, buddy icons and custom skins. More than 2 million users interacted with the site, Levinsohn said.

Burger King offers MySpace users free downloads of two episodes of the TV series 24 (Xtra, May 17, 2006).

Additionally, "When Sony comes out with the PS3, we think we'll be doing a niche promotion with them," Levinsohn said.

AOL launched a Beta version of its own social networking Web site called Aimpages.com three weeks ago, said Kathleen Kayse, senior VP-sales and partnerships, AOL Media Networks during a separate panel discussion. The site will officially launch this fall.

"It's a much richer and safer experience than Myspace," Kayse said in a separate interview. "It's richer in the sense that we'll have content from Time Warner, which will help populate our pages better than what Myspace can do right now."

Despite the squabble over who will dominate the field, Internet usage among the 12- to 24-year-old demographic continues to outpace other media. Of 56 hours per week of media usage, 30% was spent on the Internet, compared to 24% with the TV and 21% with radio, Levinsohn said.

"[The Internet] is not just an ancillary business anymore," Levinsohn said.

The Digital Marketing Conference ends today.

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